Oak Park resident Bob Kent is a low-profile sort of fellow, but he's the lead prosecutor in a very high-profile case: the trial of Conrad Black and several top associates, accused of defrauding Hollinger International of millions of dollars. Hollinger publishes the Sun-Times and the Oak Leaves, among many other papers.

Oak Park and River Forest High School's Deans of Discipline encouraged parents at last Tuesday's APPLE meeting to create "a partnership" with them to reduce the number of students receiving discipline.

Critics of the state discipline audit at Oak Park and River Forest High School remain unsatisfied with its findings and methodology, charging that the review failed to look at how and why some students are placed into the system.

We know that many of you will be sneaking off to Roosevelt Middle School in River Forest from 7 to 8 p.m. on the evening of Wednesday, Dec. 14. (Have you remembered to RSVP to Janet at 771-8282?) And we know why you're going there. But don't worry, we won't tell your children.

The River Forest Park District board has retained the services of the high-powered municipal law firm of Ancel, Glink, Diamond, Bush, DiCanni & Rolek. Park board commissioners voted 4-1 at a special meeting Friday night to approve hiring the firm as its special counsel in the matter of the board's amended application for athletic field lights in Keystone Park West.

For the second year in a row, Gwendolyn Brooks Middle School has seen fewer students enter its doors as enrollment has dropped below 800 for the first time in the school's brief three-year history. Julian's numbers, meanwhile, are rising.

In its final 2005 board meeting Monday, the River Forest village board took less than an hour to dispense with its final business before going into executive session to discuss two legal matters, one pending and another recently settled.

There wasn't much positive for Fenwick basketball coach John Quinn to say after a weekend in which his Fenwick team lost twice, including a 59-50 loss to a St. Francis de Sales squad expected to finish at the bottom of the Catholic League South.